


Skin

by RevenantAvenger90



Series: Legatus Hidden [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 1 Year Later, Episode: s01e06 Skin, Gen, Things have changed, gen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 23:45:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1666862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RevenantAvenger90/pseuds/RevenantAvenger90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year after Dean Winchester met Caroline Munroe, he unexpectedly runs into her again while working a case in St. Louis. To his amazement, Carrie has changed quite a bit. Season 1 Episode 6: Skin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Entry 2 of the Legatus Hidden Series.

 

Caroline has changed nearly beyond recognition the second time Dean meets her.

At first, he doesn't really see her. Her hair's shorter, her face is much leaner, and she's not wearing the black pantsuit she'd been in the last time. But that's not the biggest change. The biggest change is, by and far, the darkness in her eyes. When he met  her at Quantico almost a year  ago, she was guarded and sad, but that was nothing compared to the cold, quiet rage that suffuses her eyes now.

They're in St. Louis tracking a  shapeshifter  when they meet her. She's sitting in the library poring through books when they enter to do some research of their own. Dean glances at her as she raises her head to see who's entering, and for a second, he thinks he recognizes her. But then the moment passes, she turns back to her books, and he and Sam go about their business. It's pure coincidence that they seat themselves only a couple tables over, well within earshot for an FBI agent. Several hours pass by, with Sam and Dean doing their thing and the girl at the other table doing hers. Then Sam says something about the murders and about Zack, and a few minutes later, Dean feels eyes on them. He glances up and looks around. Green meets brown after a second, and he studies her quietly, struck by a heartbeat of recognition. Then Sam clears his throat, and Dean slowly returns his gaze to his little brother to find that Sam looks incredulous, and maybe even faintly disgusted.

"What?" Dean asks, confused. Sam scoffs, turning his hands palms-up for a heartbeat as he glances around and then looks back at Dean.

"Really?" he demands, and Dean frowns at his brother. Sam's definitely incredulous. "An innocent man's life is on the line, here, and you're looking at a  skirt?"

Dean shrugs. "What can I say? The ladies love this fine physique, and I love the ladies."

Sam sighs in resignation. "Can we please get back to research?"

"Yeah, sure," Dean grumbles. For several moments, everything's quiet between them. Then, almost like clockwork, Sam sighs and runs his hand through his hair, and Dean looks up to find that Sam's looking displeased yet  again .

"What now?" Dean asks. He's starting to get frustrated by Sam's own impatience.

"It's just... Why now?" Sam sits back, dragging his hand through his hair again. "Why'd this have to happen now, when we should be looking for dad and the thing that killed Jess and mom?"

Dean sighs silently. "I don't know, Sammy. He's your friend. You want to clear his name, we'll do our best. But until we find some leads about where dad is, and what that thing was, we're going to do the job. Wherever it takes us, we'll do it."

Sam's quiet for a minute. "You know, I can still see her. I still see her every time I close my eyes, burning on the ceiling."

Dean swallows. "I know."

They're both far away from the present for a few minutes. When they drag themselves back, they find that the girl from a couple tables over is now sitting beside them. Sam jumps slightly, but Dean merely blinks, scanning her face again and feeling that strange flash of familiarity. Her eyes are cold as they rake over first Dean's face, and then Sam's.

"Can we help you?" Dean asks, plastering on his best smile and turning towards her. Sam rolls his eyes and looks away as Dean enters full-on flirt mode, but this figurative fish isn't taking the bait.

Her brown gaze is glued to Sam.

"You said you saw someone burn to death," she says.

"Lots of people watch others burn to death."

"Not others who are pinned to the ceiling."

Sam scowls and turns to look at her.

"Look, lady, I don't know who you are, but-"

"I'm someone who has information for you regarding your girl's death as well as the case you're currently working." Her gaze is steely and uncompromising. "In exchange, I'd like to request your help on my own mission."

She holds up a small, black leather folio, containing a badge and an I.D. card.

Dean snorts and looks away while Sam scoffs, "Listen, lady, we know you're not really FBI-"

"Actually, I am." Her expression is deadpan. "Federal Agent Caroline Munroe. You're Sam Winchester, recently dropped out of Stanford University and boyfriend to Jessica Moore, newly deceased in a house fire that started in the bedroom you shared with her." She turns to Dean. "And you're Dean Winchester, also known as Dean Swanson. Last time I saw you, you were in Quantico with your old man. The story about being a community college grad? Blatantly bogus, by the way. I saw through it in less than two seconds."

Now, it's coming back to him. Dean stares at her and feels a grin overtaking his features.

"Caroline," he returns, leaning forward. "Last I saw you, you were pregnant. How's Emily Marie?"

"Dead."

The curt, cold, blunt response shocks Dean and Sam enough that their jaws drop and they stare at her for a long moment. Caroline stares unflinchingly back, not blinking. Well, that explains the coldness in her eyes. Caroline leans forward slightly.

"My daughter and father were murdered on her six month birthday." She tilts her head, staring at Sam, now. "It was a fire, started in my daughter's nursery by a man with yellow eyes."

Dean and Sam exchange glances, and Sam leans toward her.

"Was there any-"

"They found residue of sulfur in Emily's nursery after the fire when they were searching for accelerants." Caroline swallows visibly, and lowers her voice. "I know what it is that you two do. I know  that  your mom and girlfriend were killed by the same  thing  that took my daughter and father from me. I know you're hunting a  shapeshifter  that impersonated your friend Zack and two others in order to murder innocent women." She leans forward again. "And I want to team up with you."

"No. No way in Hell." Dean's not smiling, anymore. "This isn't something you can just jump into half-cocked, Agent or not, and we don't have the time to teach you."

"I've been hunting this thing since their deaths," Caroline growls, icy gaze transferring to Dean at last. "Six months to the day since the last time I saw you, minus twenty-seven hours and thirty-five minutes, Emily was dead along with my only other living family member. That's about a year and a half, wouldn't you say? Considering what I  wasn't  prepared for versus how much I was, I'd say I've done fairly well so far." She leans forward towards Dean. "We can work together or separately, but mark my words, I  will not  give up this hunt. Even if it's the last thing I ever do, I will  kill  that son of a bitch for what he did to my daughter."

And Dean can't muster the words to dissuade her. It's Sam who finally says that he doesn't think she can help them on the shifter case. Caroline turns a cold, incredulous gaze onto the younger Winchester, and he stares back unflinchingly.

"Do you know your way around town?"

Sam blinks. "Excuse me?"

"Do you know your way around town?" Caroline repeats herself. "'Cause I don't think you do."

Sam and Dean exchange glances. Sam turns back to her. “No, we’re a little new to the area. Why?”

“I’m a native.” She leans back. “I know every street, diner, hotel, dead-end alley, and manhole cover in this neck of the woods, and I’ve already been back here for two weeks. They’ve got construction going through half the city, by the way. Killer on traffic.”

Dean and Sam exchange another glance. Finally, Dean looks back over at her, studying her.  Then he relents, realizing that she might actually be useful to have around, if only as a guide and an extra set of eyes.

“Fine.” He shoves a book towards her. Sam stares at him like he just sprouted another head. Dean ignores him. “Start reading.”

* * *

Carrie's the one who tells her bosses in  the  FBI that Dean is dead. She's the one who writes the report about the corpse in the morgue, writes the report about how Dean seemed unstable up until he was killed during the raid. She's the one who falsifies everything she needs to falsify so that the Winchesters can go back to their daily lives.

It makes her want to throw up, but she holds it back and does it anyway.

When her phone rings the first night on the road, she doesn't recognize the number, but she picks up, anyway.

"Munroe," she answers, and hears a husky, familiar chuckle from the other end.

_ "You got any advice for a roadie about to head out of town?" _

"Winchester." The name is familiar on her tongue, but she feels her heart lighten as she says it. "Ninety-six point three is a good classic rock station. Also, it's rush hour. Avoid highway forty westbound and two-seventy northbound. They're usually bumper-to-bumper."  She pauses. "Hey. Are you sure you don't want to team up for a while? We all did good on that case together."

Dean's quiet for a second. Then he chuckles.

" _Nah_ ,"  he finally scoffs, and she hears the roar of the Impala's engine in the background. " _Girls just complicate things."_

"Jackass." But there's a hint of fondness to her voice that wasn't there when they started this case a few days ago.

In the past few days, Carrie Munroe has learned more about Dean and Sam Winchester than she had ever expected to learn before she met them. She's learned that Dean has an uncanny fondness for pie, Sam has a pout that could con a dog out of its bone, and together, they make a hell of a team. They work together like two parts of a well-oiled machine. Carrie knows from her time with them, and from working with men for so long, that she would just be a wrench in their mechanics. Silently lamenting the loss of company, she finds that she has to concede his point.

"If you ever need anything, you call me, okay?" she finds herself saying before she can stop herself. Dean's chuckle is soft.

_ "Only if you do the same, Munroe." _

He'll never call her, and they both know it.

"Catch you on the flip side, Winchester."

The line goes dead, and Carrie stares at the phone in astonishment for  just a moment. Then she shakes her head, saves Dean's number, and pockets the phone. The gas pump  thunks  its end. Carrie pays for the gas and  climbs into the driver's side of her pull-me-over-red and tan Jeep Wrangler- she took the doors off and the top down, and she intends to enjoy the ride. Reaching down, her hands flick the radio dial, and she gives a little snort, eyebrow raising a bit as she pulls out of the gas station and onto the road, heading for the open highway.

_ "Just a small-town girl _   
_ Livin' in a lonely world.   
She took the midnight train   
Goin' anywhere. _

_ Just a city boy _  
_ Born and raised in South Detroit.   
He took the midnight train   
Goin' anywhere..." _

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, I know it's short. I didn't feel like going into detail with the episode, though. Just know that she worked the case with them.


End file.
